Art & Animation

Got cash? Here’s a bright spot in these dark times for the arts. Arts Council Silicon Valley is once again doling out the dough in support of local artists, from theater directors to sculptors and poets, in the form of their coveted artist fellowships. Working artists active in Santa Clara County and its environs are strongly encouraged to apply. Starving is not mandatory. Applications are due Nov. 14 for 2009 fellowships. $4,000 awards are up for grabs in six different aesthetic categories. Nice work if you can get it, eh? Scroll down for details straight from the ACSV website.

Just in, via press release, from Electronic Arts (“legendary” seems correct to me when talking about Will Wright — he’s a very nice guy — and if you’re in the vicinity, I think you’ll enjoy this):
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Legendary Game Designer Will Wright to Appear at the Apple Store in San Francisco on Saturday, June 21st For Public Demo of Hotly-Anticipated New Game SPORE

Who: Industry Icon Will Wright, the Chief Designer from Maxis, an EA studio. Wrightâ€™s games are some of the most popular and acclaimed titles of all time, including SimCity and the mega-hit The Sims, which recently celebrated 100 million units sold.

What: Wright will provide a public demo of his latest project, the hotly anticipated game Spore. One of the most ambitious games ever made, Spore gives players their own personal universe in a box. Create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe filled with creations made by other gamers. Spore gives players a wealth of creative tools to customize nearly every aspect of their universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even UFOs.

I was jolted out of the fog of multitasking this morning when I opened my mail and found a new “Wacky Races” game from Eidos Interactive — one version for the Wii, another for the DS. Wasn’t on my radar (there just too many things to track), but I’m delighted.

I have no idea if the game is any good, but the concept is irresistible. It taps into my 1960s nostalgia, plus a nice gaming memory.

Here’s the nostalgia part (I’m stealing from the capsule history I provided in an article eight years ago): Among the special TV shows of the late 1960s and early 1970s were three Hanna-Barbera cartoons: ”The Wacky Races,” ”The Perils of Penelope Pitstop” and ”Dastardly and Muttley.” There’s no debating their distinction. Ask anyone who was old enough to turn on a TV set back then.

I believe that as much now as I did then. And in 2000, the news hook for that nostalgia was the release of some “Wacky Races” games that included one for the Sega Dreamcast. I played it relentlessly — it couldn’t have been THAT good — because of my fondness for the characters.

Penelope. The Slag Brothers in their Boulder-Mobile. Rufus Ruffcut and Sawtooth in their Buzz Wagon. Dick Dastardly and Muttley’s Mean Machine. God bless Warner Bros. Interactive and the license it granted Eidos (although if the game proves terrible, this post will go down as asininely premature).

I asked in my earlier post today what the time tradeoff would be for people who have become instantly addicted to the Spore Creature Creator. For me, the “Wacky Races” lure is at least temporarily so powerful that Spore will have to pay the price. My creature will languish tonight while I take a detour with Peter Perfect and his Turbo Terrific. Wikipedia has a fun “Wacky Races” history, fyi.

This photo shows my first result — achieved fairly quickly, without utilizing everything available — of making something with the Spore Creature Creator from Electronic Arts. I’ll see if I can get some of the animations on the blog (love the biting action of this thing), but the fundamental attraction is matching your imagination to the design tools.

I can understand why people are instantly flocking to this activity. Am I immediately addicted? No . . . but I could get there easily. And that’s a problem. Where is the time going to come from? I’ve got a stack of important or tempting games to get to, yet I picked “Spore” last night as THE choice for some extremely valuable time.

My question for people who already are deeply invested: What in the world are you going to trade off for the kind of time that a fully committed use of the creature creator demands?

After a bunch of days off, I got back Tuesday and was buried by catch-up obligations. Time now to get the blog rolling again — no run of empty days is on the horizon — and this “just in” press release from Electronic Arts is worth running as is:

More Than 250,000 Creatures

Created and shared in the Spore Creature Creator

The Countdown to the Launch of Spore Blasts Off

With Fans Uploading More Than Two Creatures Every Second Since Launch

Redwood City, CA â€“ June 18, 2008 â€“ Weâ€™re not alone in the galaxy! Maxis, an Electronic Arts
Inc (NASDAQ: ERTS) studio, today announced that Sporeâ„¢ fans and the creatively curious have
designed and shared more than 250,000 new alien life forms since yesterdayâ€™s launch of the
Spore Creature Creator â€“ currently more than two creatures are being shared every second!
Anyone can download their own copy of the Spore Creature Creator or check out thousands of
amazing creations from around the world in the Sporepedia at www.spore.com.

â€œThe response to the Spore Creature Creator has been overwhelming,â€ said Lucy Bradshaw,
executive producer of Spore at Maxis. â€œThe creativity and passion that the community is
putting into their creatures is spectacular. The development team has spent the last 24 hours
checking out the amazing creations racing in from all corners of the globe â€“ with peak volume
hitting more than 1,000 creatures being shared a minute.â€

The Spore Creature Creator is a stand-alone product and creativity toy box where players
create their own unique creatures, bring them to life with entertaining animations, and share
them online with friends around the world. The full version of the Spore Creature Creator will
be available for $9.99 at retail stores or by visiting www.spore.com. A free trial version of
the Spore Creature Creator is also available today at www.spore.com. The trial version
features 25% of the creature-making parts from Spore and lets players shape, paint and play
with their custom-created creatures. Creatures made in the Spore Creature Creator can also be
imported into the full Spore game, allowing players to populate their own galaxies when the
game ships worldwide later this year.

The Spore Creature Creator lets players create their own creatures, take them on a test drive,
snap pictures, and make movies of them. Sharing pictures or videos with friends is as easy as
the click of a button. Players can also share their creations with others by uploading to the
Sporepediaâ„¢ at www.Spore.com. The Sporepedia is an extraordinarily vast online destination
where people worldwide can search for and share Spore creations, comment on other playerâ€™s
designs, check out celebrity creature creations and much more.

The Spore Creature Creator is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB. The downloadable demo version
is free. The complete version has an MSRP of $9.99 in North America. Spore ships for the PC,
Mac, Nintendo DSâ„¢ and mobile phones on September 5, 2008 in Europe and September 7, 2008 in
North America and Asia. Visit www.Spore.com to download a free version of the Spore Creature
Creator, sign up for the Spore newsletter or check out all-new screenshots and videos from the
game.

[photopress:Antartica_DJ_Spooky.jpg,thumb,alignright]Paul D. Miller, the rhythm alchemist also known as DJ Spooky, was among the major attractions at SubZero, Friday’s 01SJ block party along First Avenue in San Jose.

But Miller wasn’t delivering the much anticipated multimedia performance of “Terra Nova: The Antarctic Suite.” His piece based on his visit to Antarctica isÂ at 6 and 8 p.m.Â tomorrow at the Imax Theater at the Tech Museum of Innovation.Miller was at Anno Domini gallery to talk about his new book, “Sound Unbound” (MIT Press, 2008).

The collection of 36 essays on the role of sound and digital media in the creative process nicely reflects how DJ Spooky is into such a broad mix of disparate subjects. The likes of Brian Eno, Chuck D and Steve Reich contributed to the book.

To learn more about “Sound Unbound” or Miller’s other 01SJ appearances, go to www.djspooky.com and 01sj.org.

First of all, I’m the relatively rare gamer who never has been a “Metal Gear” fan.

In the game world, where the mildest of dissenting opinions provokes outrage from clans of fanboys, that qualifies as a shocking attitude. Really, it’s just one man’s reaction, and I’m not trying to make some huge cosmic point.

But “Metal Gear Solid 4,” arriving next week from Konami for PlayStation 3, has been particularly easy for me to ignore: I can’t think of any other game — not “Halo,” not “Final Fantasy,” not anything — that has gotten so much buildup for cinematic previews that make the game play look comparatively unworthy.

In other words, the non-playable scenes are extraordinary, and I’ve seen that stuff hyped over and over. Last year’s Sony press conference at E3 comes first to mind. Much fresher: last month’s Konami preview night in San Francisco. Then, when the look and feel of actually playing the game takes over, there’s an over-the-cliff falloff in the sense of excitement and drama.

At the Konami night, as developer Hideo Kojima demonstrated the playing experience with commentary, the impact was snooze-inducing. The sophistication of the software was obvious (I was duly impressed by the way Snake’s suit can duplicate patterns from his environment for camouflage). And sure, I realize all the hallmark stealth activity has its own rewards. Ultimately, though, the Kojima session was defined by tedium.

My problem — and the fanboys are going to remind me constantly that it’s MY problem — is that the animated cinematics are mind-bogglingly engaging. Making the transition to the drastically flatter game play leaves me numb. And not in a good way.

I’ve got a stack of good games to play. No pins and needles about MGS4 for me.